5. Age 65 has been the “traditional” age for full retirement. However, because of longer life expectancy, the full retirement age is increasing for people born after 1938. Full retirement now goes from 65 to 67 depending upon the year of your birth. (The Social Security Act)

6. Age 70 is a mandatory retirement for the members of some professions.

Although sex roles have changed and we have more freedom of sexual expression since the 1960s, the stereotype that older people are physically unattractive, uninterested in sex, and incapable of achieving sexual arousal remains. (Hall, Selby & Vanclay, 1982).

Those in their fifties and sixties in the LGBT community find themselves in the peculiar position of being shut out of the very community they fought to create and helped to preserve during the worst days of AIDS epidemic.

Gay and Lesbian seniors face many problems that most heterosexuals never have to face, such as nursing homes where gays aren’t welcome, and a refusal to accommodate same-sex partners.

Most LGBT elders do not benefit from services on which other seniors thrive.

Because of this, many older GLBTQ people go back into the closet.

Several federal programs and laws treat unmarried same-sex couples differently from married heterosexual couples. This is why marriage for GLBT people is not so much about the sacred as it is about the fundamental right of GLBT citizens to live their lives without economic and social sanctions.

Social Security pays survivor benefits to widows and widowers, but not to the surviving same-sex life partner of someone who dies. This used to cost LGBT elders $124 million a year in un-accessed benefits.

Married spouses are eligible for Social Security spousal benefits, which can allow them to earn half their spouse’s Social Security benefit if it is larger than their own Social Security benefit. Unmarried partners in life-long relationships are not eligible for spousal benefits.

Medicaid regulations protect the assets and homes of married spouses when the other spouse enters a nursing home or long-term care facility; no such protections go to unmarried partners.

Tax laws and other regulations of 401(k)s and pensions discriminate against unmarried partners, costing the surviving partner in a same-sex relationship tens of thousands of dollars a year, and possibly over $1 million during the course of a lifetime.

Even the most basic rights such as hospital visitation or the right to die in the same nursing home are regularly denied unmarried partners.

20 thoughts on “Gerontophobia”

Wow as usual I learned something new as it relates to the LGBT community from you. I was already familiar with the term but as I kept reading and saw the terms the LGBT community dealt with, it was enlightening. Proud of you Robert. You’re artistic and fearless. What I love most about you is you’re bravery stems from never wanting anyone else to experience demobilizing fear. Honored to know you.

Taking this stand feels more like an instinctive response than courage.

It is true that I never want people to experience the immobilizing fear that comes with living under the tyranny of other people’s fear and hatred.

To that extent GLBT people have everything in common with other people who experience discrimination and unprovoked aggression.

I think most people want to have good lives, love, to feel needed and cared for and to be sheltered and fed…we all have the same basic needs–I don’t know why this fundamental truth is so obscure for so many people.

I would never want to go to a care facility. I’m still a bit conservative when it comes to this, I love having my grandma around and she was the best nanny on earth. If I could raise my children that way, to accept me living just close enough, so that there’s no need for assisted care, that would be my biggest success in life.
I don’t believe in seperation of generations. Nobody’s our past or future, we’re all our present and we never know who is going to live longer. My grandma might see more of our future than me, who can guarantee that I’ll live tomorrow? If we could only understand each other a bit more and be more supportive, accept the aging as well as the youth, everything would be easier.

You’ve made an excellent point…I’ve been thinking along these lines and working on a piece of writing that isn’t finished, but I will a part of it with you:

“The most insidious aspect of ageism is that all of us can end it now by simply accepting the fact that aging is an unavoidable feature of the human condition. Ageism is a trap that we make for ourselves. We spend our lives behaving as if it won’t happen and then treat ourselves like losers when it does happen.

If you think only failures need help then you will feel like a failure when you inevitably need help.

The operating word here is inevitable.

Instead of considering the future and creating livable cities in which we can age, we pretend that we’ll never need them, and perpetuate the misery that we always have the power to end.“

Wow, there are so many new pieces of information here — things I’d never considered.
I don’t view anyone’s sexuality as my concern, really, regardless of age. Sorta, if it’s not happening in my bedroom, it’s not my business. I have heard of people gettin it on in their advanced years and people who gave it up as well. Suppose once again, I only care about when I stop the sexing lol.
I cannot imagine nursing homes don’t like serving LGTB, but on second thought, it seems like it’d be obvious. Discrimination is everywhere.
Lots to muddle here. Great post, obviously.